Shredders are well known devices for destroying materials, such as documents, CDs, floppy disks, etc. Typically, users purchase shredders to destroy sensitive materials, such as credit card statements with account information, documents containing company trade secrets, etc.
A common type of shredder has a shredding mechanism contained within a housing that is removably mounted atop a container. The shredding mechanism typically has a series of cutter elements that shred materials fed therein and discharge the shredded materials downwardly into the container. A common shredding mechanism utilizes two motor-driven cutting cylinders with interleaving cutter elements to shred materials.
Various shredders include motor feedback loops to help regulate operation of the shredder (e.g., to detect temperature and reduce motor load to avoid overheating; to detect resistance and/or current across the motor and regulate its operation accordingly). For example, conventional shredders have sensed motor current, speed, and/or temperature to control shredder operation. It is also known to use an externally sensing microphone in a shredder to turn off the shredder in response to the microphone detecting a person's voice (e.g., a loud voice saying “stop”). Dahle's Model No. 31214 is an example of such a voice-deactivated shredder.
Various embodiments and/or aspects of the present invention endeavor to provide various improvements over known shredders.